MetaChat - Is orange juice really this processed?

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27 February 2009

Is orange juice really this processed? →[More:]
It gets stripped of flavor-providing chemicals, which are volatile. When it's ready for packaging, companies such as Tropicana hire flavor companies such as Firmenich to engineer flavor packs to make it taste fresh.

The more I know the worse I feel.

post by: moonshine at: 15:27 | 12 comments

Hey, you pure orange juice? Squeeze an orange.

posted by jonmc 27 February | 15:47

The more I know the worse I feel.

Like they say, if you like sausage, don't ask what it's made of.

posted by Daniel Charms 27 February | 16:01

I guess I'm gullible and not quite cynical enough, because I always thought the not-from-concentrate stuff (which is tasty, IMO) was pretty unadulterated. Guess not. Boo.

posted by mudpuppie 27 February | 16:30

Like they say, if you like sausage, don't ask what it's made of.

Or make it yourself. Same goes for orange juice.

posted by dersins 27 February | 16:31

Or buy the hand-stuffed sausage from the grocery store! If your grocery store sells it!

I would buy hand-pressed OJ from the grocery store. I am just that lazy.

posted by muddgirl 27 February | 16:32

Wow, thanks for that link. Interestingly enough, my grocery shop sells "Brazilian Orange Juice" and it is cheaper than the Florida OJ but I hadn't thought of the lax environmental regulations contributing to the price difference. The "Florida Squeezed" oj I buy says right on the label "Pasturised Orange Juice. Nothing Else." I'd squeeze my own but oranges are so expensive.

posted by saucysault 27 February | 16:51

I have no idea what carton orange juice tastes like these days - but if it tastes anything like it did 15 years ago, this isn't at all surprising. Carton juice always had a chemical taste to me, it was something like orange juice, but definitely not orange juice. Concentrate tasted better (and of course fresh-squeezed tasted/tastes right).

posted by taz 27 February | 17:12

Actually, I don't drink orange juice anymore, it's too expensive. And too lazy to squeeze my own. Heh. But I never thought they'd bother to add flavoring in and all that jazz.

Taz, I noticed the chemical taste too. Always thought it was because of the cardboard.

posted by moonshine 27 February | 17:58

All orange juice really has going for it is the vitamin C, 286% of the recommended daily requirement but most of the excess is just pissed away. Eat a real orange, 4.4 g of dietary fiber, almost half the sugars, and nearly 2/3 of the calories, and a whole lot less acid for your kidneys to process and your bladder to store.

Is the coffee ready?

posted by Ardiril 28 February | 02:51

I have some SimCafe in a carton here. It's made from bleached and hydrogenated Albanian pseudocoffeebean extract mixed with freezedried Guinea Pig milk solids and aspartame. Want some?

posted by taz 28 February | 06:09

The oranges in Marrakech are sold with the leaves still attached! And there are stands in the Djemma el Fna Square that do nothing other than juice oranges for you, then pour the juice, WITH ADDED CINNAMON, into a GIANT GOBLET.

OJ in Poland is a disaster.

posted by mdonley 28 February | 19:00

You can take my Tropicana OJ from my cold dead hand. I shouldn't drink it since I have diabetes, but I love the stuff. It tastes more orange-y than concentrate. Which, I guess, the above linked article explained why. I don't eat oranges because the pith/pulp makes me gag.

posted by deborah 28 February | 21:30

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